What to Ask Before Paying for Knee Care

What to get in the written price

Ask whether the price covers one visit or a set of visits. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) comes from blood run through a spinning machine. The machine separates a platelet-rich liquid from the rest. Clinics don't all prepare that liquid the same way. The quote needs to name the method and the knee being treated. Find out whether braces, medicine, and follow-up cost more. You'll also want the rules for changing or canceling an appointment.

Don't forget the day around the visit. Travel, time away from work, and help at home may add cost. Ask about limits on lifting, standing, and driving before choosing the date. A lower office price may not stay lower after those costs.

One number rarely tells you the whole cost.

How to ask QC Kinetix about payment

QC Kinetix calls PRP a regenerative treatment because it uses blood drawn from you. The medical team can describe what happens at the clinic and list each charge. Keep the questions on paper so nothing gets missed.

Ask what happens if your knee doesn't improve as hoped. That includes the next medical choice and any added charge. If financing is offered, check the interest, fees, and full amount due. A monthly payment isn't the same as the total price.

You deserve time to read the terms before deciding.

When to call your health plan

Use the phone number printed on your insurance card. Ask about the exact service discussed. Then check what the plan covers for the exam, X-ray, physical therapy, braces, or medicine. Those services might be covered even when the PRP treatment isn't. Save the answer and call record with your notes.

Medicare has narrow PRP coverage for hard-to-heal wounds only during an approved study. That rule doesn't provide national coverage for PRP used in knee arthritis. Other benefits aren't tied to it, so ask about each service.

A clinic estimate isn't a promise from your health plan.

Sources

1. A cross-sectional study contacted 273 of 317 US centres offering direct-to-consumer stem-cell therapy, posing as a 57-year-old man with knee osteoarthritis. The mean advertised price of a unilateral same-day stem-cell knee injection was $5,156 (SD $2,446), and centres claimed a mean clinical efficacy of 82% (SD 9.6%) - a figure with no support in the published evidence. The gap between the quoted number and the trial data is the single most useful thing a patient can be told before a consultation.

   Piuzzi NS, et al. — The Stem-Cell Market for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Patient Perspective.. The journal of knee surgery, 2018. DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1604443.

2. Medicare's National Coverage Determination covers autologous platelet-rich plasma ONLY for chronic non-healing diabetic, pressure or venous WOUNDS, and only under Coverage with Evidence Development inside an approved clinical research study. There is no Medicare coverage pathway for PRP as a treatment for osteoarthritis or any other joint indication, which is why these injections are quoted as cash prices.

   Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — Autologous Platelet-rich Plasma (Coverage with Evidence Development). CMS.gov, 2012.

3. In January 2025 the Federal Trade Commission banned the co-founders of a stem cell institute and their companies from marketing stem cell treatments and ordered them to pay more than $5.1 million in refunds and civil penalties. Deceptive EFFICACY ADVERTISING, not merely unapproved manufacturing, is independently actionable - the FTC polices what a clinic promises as well as what it injects.

   US Federal Trade Commission — Stem Cell Institute Co-Founders and Companies Banned from Marketing Stem Cell Treatments and Ordered to Pay More Than $5.1 Million for Refunds and Civil Penalties. FTC Press Release, 2025.

4. The study that first mapped the scale of the US direct-to-consumer stem cell industry, finding widespread internet marketing of unapproved stem cell interventions by businesses based in the UNITED STATES - previously assumed to be a phenomenon of countries with lax medical regulation - and concluding that regulators must better oversee this marketplace.

   Turner L, et al. — Selling Stem Cells in the USA: Assessing the Direct-to-Consumer Industry.. Cell stem cell, 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2016.06.007.

5. Roughly 14 million people in the United States have symptomatic knee osteoarthritis, and more than half of them are under 65 - with nearly 2 million under 45. The market for a cash-pay procedure sold as an alternative to joint replacement is largely working-age people who are being told they are too young for surgery.

   Deshpande BR, et al. — Number of Persons With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis in the US: Impact of Race and Ethnicity, Age, Sex, and Obesity.. Arthritis care & research, 2016. DOI: 10.1002/acr.22897.